


Broken Bonds, Broken Hearts

by DizzyDrea



Category: Numb3rs
Genre: Brothers, Character Death, F/M, Family, Mental Breakdown
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-01-22
Updated: 2012-01-22
Packaged: 2017-11-05 03:37:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/402031
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DizzyDrea/pseuds/DizzyDrea
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Genius and insanity go hand in hand, and Charlie's no different than any other genius.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Broken Bonds, Broken Hearts

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [numb3rs100](http://numb3rs100.livejournal.com/) Prompt #351 – Restraint
> 
> This story is darker than I've ever written, which isn't saying much since I don't normally do dark. Still, you've been warned. Nobody comes out of here whole.
> 
> Originally posted on LiveJournal.
> 
> Disclaimer: Numb3rs belongs to The Barry Schindel Company, Scott Free Productions, CBS Television Studios and a lot of other people who aren't me. I'm doing this for fun and for practice. Mostly for fun.

~o~ 

A week after the wedding, two days before he has to be at his new job, Don finds himself back at the Craftsman. 

Amita's bound and gagged, restraints tied to the bedposts, eyes open and unseeing. Don finds Charlie on the floor nearby, huddled into himself, muttering over and over. 

_Can't leave…can't leave…_

Not guilty by reason of mental defect. That's what the verdict sheet says, but Don has a hard time reconciling that with the memory of what he's seen. Charlie still won't talk about that night, and the doctors say it's his coping mechanism. It isn't helping Don cope at all. They might never know what happened that night, and that knowledge leaves him frustrated. 

Robin leaves him just a month after the trial is over. For as much as she loves him, she can't watch him be consumed by his brother, and that's what's happening. He knows it and doesn't begrudge her need for distance, just quietly mourns the death of his marriage. 

It's when Alan dies that he nearly comes undone. He fades away in his sleep one night, and there are whispers that he's died of a broken heart. Don's not sure that's true, but he thinks it might be a blessing anyway. 

After a brief stay in a mental hospital, Charlie is released and returns home. He has his lucid moments, but mostly he just immerses himself in math, and when that happens, Don can't reach him. Sometimes he thinks that's for the best; if Charlie doesn't remember what happened, maybe he can live out his life happier. Or, at least less scarred. 

Don spends the rest of his life trying to understand why Charlie did it. It's only on Charlie's death bed that he begins to understand. 

_Thank you for not leaving me…_

~Finis


End file.
